Edward's Point Of View
The numbers on the spreadsheet blurred into a jagged, incomprehensible mess of red ink. I blinked hard, the heavy bridge of my reading glasses pressing a dull ache straight into my forehead. My eyes burned from hours of staring at the screen, and I realized I couldn't remember the last time I'd looked away. The cursor blinked mockingly at me, waiting for corrections I no longer had the mental clarity to make.
For the past month, my life had shrunk entirely to this wood-paneled room, to these exact financial files my assistant had delivered just yesterday. Every day proved a brutal, uphill battle.
Ever since the corporate scandal broke… a mess of embezzlement and fraud I'd known nothing about until the investigators came knocking, trying to salvage this company felt like piecing together a shattered porcelain vase with cheap glue during an earthquake.
